A Little Explaination
So, I wanted to do a little explaining of what I’m using in my workouts in terms of my workout plan with a little bit of background on my fitness journey. I’ve been lifting for a little more than 2.5 years, I started with the StrongLifts program (which I loved) and kind of expanded to different programs from there. I’ve been on my current plan for almost 6 weeks and have already seen major results in comparison to my old plans, I switched from a variation on StrongLifts to the plan I’m currently on. The plan I’m currently on is the one outlined in How To Gain Muscle Mass: The Ultimate Guide by Charles R. Poliquin. Although it’s likely not geared towards thin 20something women, I don’t believe that women’s and men’s fitness are strictly independent, bodies are bodies. Poliquin suggests a 3-4 day plan (I chose 4 days) with an average of 6 exercises per workout with alternating focus on chest/arms and leg days. One of the things that I’ve found is totally distinct about Poliquin’s ideas from any other plan I’ve been on are the 6 week repeating phases of “accumulation” and “intensification”. Each phase slightly changes the frequency of reps, exercises and rest duration, I think this is one of the main difference making variables, changing it up and working the muscle to avoid plateauing, I’m no expert yet though so don’t quote me on that. I just know that it works. I think eventually I’d like to add in some short HIIT workouts on off days for extra cardio but right now I’m riding bikes around in DTLA so that definitely helps get a little cardio in here and there. If you’d like to see what each day consists of just check out my previous two video posts. https://superlft.tumblr.com/post/155704343992/4-of-my-6-exercises-for-legs-intensification
and
https://superlft.tumblr.com/post/156062611677/chest-and-arms-accumulation-day-top-half-range
Unfortunately, that’s the easy part. You can work out all you want but my goal is to burn fat and replace it with muscle. This means that my diet needed a total overhaul. Don’t get me wrong, I love food so much. Carbs are my favorite followed quickly by fat but I’ve had to really reevaluate what I feel is important to me. While delicious food is important to me, staying healthy, aging well and taking care of my body for my work is more important to me. When I’m older it won’t be the moments of gluttony that I’ll be happy about but the time I took to keep myself healthy that’ll matter. This doesn’t mean I changed my entire life and I never eat my favorites any more, I give myself cheat days and cheat meals all the time but 80%-90% of the time I’m eating clean, whole foods of primarily pescatarian (sans eggs and lactose) variety. I’ve found that animal products are hard on the digestive system and I’ve chosen to only allow fish/seafood into my life to lessen the chance of me relapsing into red meat or pork, which I still will eat from time to time. A little bit of fresh sushi always makes my cravings disappear. Since making these changes to my diet and watching what I’m putting into my body I’ve also found that my taste has changed and vegetables, meat replacements like tofu or beyond meat have been increasingly more appetizing. ALSO vegan options at non vegan restaurants are amazing, they usually taste better than the original IMHO. Anyway at the risk of dragging on and on about diet I’ll stop here. I have plenty of suggestions for awesome places for recipes to cook, restaurants to hit up and meat alternatives to add to your dinner.
Thanks for reading!